Balsamroot and wild lupin in bloom above the Yakima River along State Route 10.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
You see them in line at the coffee shop, working the land, volunteering at local events or cheering on grandkids at the rodeo. Veterans — our quiet heroes — live among us, woven into the fabric of Kittitas County.
Some wore the uniform on distant shores, others built the planes and packed the parachutes back home. All of them, in their own way, helped carry the weight of freedom.
Today,1,000 veterans call this valley home. That number is more than a statistic — it’s a powerful reminder of the courage, sacrifice and resilience that shaped this country and continues to shape our community.
At 1883 Kittitas County Magazine, we honor each of you. We see you. We thank you.
On a personal note, I’d like to thank my father — a proud American who answered his country’s call with unwavering
dedication. His service reminds me every day of the values we hold dear: duty, honor and love of country. And to my Uncle George who served with honor several tours in Vietnam: your selfless courage continues to inspire.
As we celebrate Memorial Day may we remember the fallen, honor the living and cherish the freedoms they fought to protect. Be safe. Stay grateful.
Cheers, Robyn Robyn Smith, Publisher, 1883 Kittitas County
Robyn Smith, Publisher
Rod Harwood, Contributing Writer
Andrea Paris, Editor/Designer Contact us at editor1883kittitascounty@gmail.com
1883 Kittitas County is a publication of Spark Pug Productions. It is a monthly publication. Free editions may be found in numerous sites throughout Kittitas County. Original stories, story ideas, photographs, illustrations, art or poems about Kittitas County are welcome. Send them to editor1883kittitascounty@gmail.com.
1883 Kittitas County is politically neutral and will not publish any hate speech against any person or entity. 1883 Kittitas County reserves the right to publish or not publish any submitted items, edit all materials for content and check for accuracy.
— Jennifer McKinnon photo
A time to heal
Memorial Replica, Mobile Education Center coming in September
The cobblestone walkway stretching out in front of the black granite, V-shaped memorial continues to create the same feeling of reverence and respect it did the day it was dedicated on Veterans Day in 1982, fulfilling the promise to never forget those who served and sacrificed during the Vietnam War. Equally inspiring is the fact the $178,000 it took to construct was raised entirely through private donations.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is of course a tribute to those who served and to those who didn’t come home. The names of the 58,281 men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice are forever etched in stone, representing far more than just a name.
The memorial has just one name from Kittitas County. Army Spec 5 medical specialist Hugh Clausen of Ellensburg was killed on Sept. 22, 1966 in the Binh Dinh Province. His name can be found on Panel 10e, Line 131.
“I heard the name, didn’t know him,” said Allen Aronica, who graduated from Ellensburg High School the same year Clausen died.
Aronica graduated in 1966 and by October he was in Vietnam serving in ground forces as a Sgt E-5 with the 3rd Battalion, Marine Light Infantry in Bravo Company in the Mekong Delta.
The Kittitas tribal elder came precariously close to having his name on the Vietnam Memorial Wall, receiving two Purple Heart citations.
“It was three, actually. But the paperwork didn’t come in on the last one,” he said matter-of-factly on being wounded in battle.
“I had a chance to go back to Washington D.C. to see the memorial there. You can actually see your reflection in the granite,” he said. “There’s a lot of friends I served with whose names are on the Wall. It left a lasting impression.”
The Wall That Heals is the only traveling exhibit affiliated with The Wall in Washington, D.C. and is the largest replica traveling the country. This year marks the 30th season of The Wall That Heals tour and it will include a stop in Ellensburg on Sept. 4-7 as part of its 30-city tour.
Since its debut in 1996, the exhibit has been on display in nearly 800 U.S. communities in addition to an April 1999 tour of the Four Provinces of Ireland as well as a visit to Canada in 2005.
“I think this exhibit coming to town will be good for people to see all the names, because there’s a lot of families that were affected,” Aronica said. “The people that served and gave their life did it because they thought they were fighting for something worth the risk. Part of us thought ‘You need to serve your country, so you don’t have your enemy on your back doorstep.’
“We saw that with 9/11. When it gets to that point, it’s too late. I don’t know if the wall heals, but people need to know the men and women died for their freedoms.”
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the move through the United States. It will be in Ellensburg Sept. 4-7. Contributed photo
The three-quarter scale replica is 375 feet in length and stands 7.5 feet high at its tallest point will be on display at Rotary Park in Ellensburg and available on a 24-hour basis from 9 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 4 through 2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 7.
Continued from previous page
Locally, the project is spearheaded as a community service project by all four Rotary Clubs in Kittitas County. Russell Colmore and Henry Johnston of the Ellensburg Downtown Rotary Club are the cochairs of the host committee, with additional support from other Rotarians and volunteers. Kelleher Motor Company and Johnston & Williams Funeral Home are the presenting sponsors and have underwritten a large portion of what is required to host The Wall That Heals.
“It’s exceptionally powerful. I think it’s important because we have a lot of Vietnam veterans in our community. People will have a chance to experience that healing that comes with this,” Johnston said. “It gives us, as a community, the opportunity to acknowledge our Vietnam veterans that didn’t get the recognition they deserved when they came home. We’re honoring what they went through and their service.
“We hope that this will be a healing experience for veterans and a learning experience for the next generation, who might not know about the importance and impact of the Vietnam War.”
Said Colmore, “We don’t have a lot of control over the dates when it actually gets here. So, it will be the weekend after the (Ellensburg) rodeo. But we will have on Patriot Night at the rodeo to let people know it’s available if the cowboys or their families are still in the area want to come back the following weekend,”
The Wall That Heals
Sept. 4-7
Rotary Park, Ellensburg Open 24 hours a day and is free to the public
To learn more go to www.TheWallThatHealsEllensburg2025.com
he said.
“I think it’s important to the service community and the community in general. We have connected with Central Washington University, so we’ll get the college students out there. I’ve spoken with the superintendent of schools for Ellensburg and Kittitas and we’re going to do specialty tours for students. It is very important that our Vietnam vets get recognized. A lot of them are still suffering from the toll the war took on them, especially those that were exposed to Agent Orange. We will have a special Agent Orange education night were we educate people to the various chemicals used during the course of the war and how it affected our soldiers.”
The exhibit tells the story of the Vietnam War, The Wall and the era surrounding the conflict, and is designed to put American experiences in Vietnam in a historical and cultural context.
During 15 years of military involvement, over 3 million Americans served in Vietnam with 500,000 seeing actual combat. Of that, 58,272 were killed in action or in non-combat deaths and 303,644 were wounded. The war in Vietnam tore a hole America’s social fabric. On the home front, antiwar protests that sometimes ended in violence, were as much a part of the nightly news as the war itself as television ushered in a new era.
Two Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund staff members will lead volunteers on site, educate visitors and students, and ensure the reflective atmosphere of The Wall. The mobile Education Center exhibit includes: digital photo displays of “Hometown Heroes” which will include service members whose names are on The Wall that list their home of record within the area of a visit; digital photo displays of Vietnam veterans from the local area honored through VVMF’s In Memory program which honors veterans who returned home from Vietnam and later died; video displays that teach about the history and impact of The Wall; educational exhibits told through items representative of those left at The Wall in D.C.; a replica of the In Memory plaque; a map of Vietnam and a chronological overview of the Vietnam War.
Rod Harwood is an award-winning writer and photographer. He can be reached at rodneyharwood149@gmail.com.
A hand is reflected in the stone surface of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall. The mobile momument will beon display 24-hours
in Ellensburg at Rotary Park
Voice of freedom
Veterans share experiences on 50th anniversary of Vietnam War
Editor’s Note: If you would like to listen to the complete interviews with Mike Dorsey, Lloyd Webster, Allen Aronica, Dave Watson, Mike Allen, Dennis Larsen and Jim McFarland as part of the 14-part radio series “The 52-Year War in Vietnam” for the Voice of Vashon, 101.9 FM radio station, visit 1883 Kittitas County Magazine Facebook.
The last of the U.S. combat troops left in 1973 as part of the peace agreement, but April 30, 1975 marks the official end of the Vietnam War with the fall of Saigon to communist troops from North Vietnam.
It’s been 50 years, but the visions of mass hysteria, civilians scaling the wall of the U.S. embassy, Marines trying to restrain the crowd and Navy personnel on the USS Blue Ridge pushing a helicopter off the deck into the sea to make room for more evacuation flights still burns vivid in recent memory.
Rotary Club organizers in Ellensburg and Upper County have
arranged to host the traveling exhibit The Wall That Heals on Sept. 4-7 in Rotary Park. The three-quarter scale exhibit is the only affiliated project with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. and is the largest traveling replica the country.
1883 Kittitas County Magazine reached out to local Vietnam Era veterans to add their voice and experiences as a tribute to those who served in Southeast Asia.
Ed Barry, Aviation Petty Officer Second Class, served on the USS Enterprise (1969-’73), in the Tonkin Gulf
“I was ready to do my part, but I was a little too anxious. After the first tour I didn’t want to go back. But I ended up doing a second tour anyway,” said Barry, a Cleveland native who went in at the age of 21 and mustered out at 25. “The USS Enterprise was the first nuclear aircraft carrier at the time. We went seven days a week, 16-hours a day. If you worked on the flight deck, you worked flight deck hours and didn’t get off after an 8-hour shift. You stayed until all the birds that went out and were all recovered.”
Soldiers unload from the helicopters at a landing zone during a mission. Contributed photo
Continued from previous page
January 1966, the aircraft carrier was continuing operations as a unit of Task Force 77 in the Gulf of Tonkin as the flagship of Rear Admiral Henry L. Miller, Commander Carrier Division Three. She was carrying a complement of approximately 350 officers and 4,800 men. When Enterprise departed the Gulf of Tonkin on June 20, 1967, her pilots had flown more than 13,400 battle missions during 132 combat days of operations, according to historylink.com.
“We’d go out 30 to 40 days at a time. You’d do the 16 hours a day, seven days a week shifts and then you’d come back in and get a week off and then you’d do it all over again,” said the former Ellensburg mayor, who is now the Kittitas County Veterans Association president.
“We would always get screwed because all the other carriers were conventional in that they ran on oil and they always needed maintenance. We were nuclear (powered) and they knew they could call on us anytime and we’d be ready to go. All the conventional carriers are gone now and they’re all nuclear. We were the first one.”
Allen Aronica, Sgt. E-5 with the 3rd Battalion, 39th Infantry in Bravo Company in the Mekong Delta.
Aronica graduated in 1966 and served in the Vietnam ground forces. He did a number of search and destroy missions in a variety of locations. He was injured twice and received two Purple Heart citations.
“I received my draft notice two weeks after I graduated from high school in June of ’66 and I was in-country in Vietnam by October,” said Aronica, who was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, Expert (M-60), Marksman (M-16), Air Medal, Combat Infantry Badge, Vietnam Service Medal with two Bronze Service Stars, and Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal with Device.
Allen Aronica, Dave Watson, Mike Allen, Dennis Larsen and Jim McFarland. 1883 Kittitas CountyMagazine discussed those interviews giving a voice far beyond the statistics and what was seen from afar on the nightly news.
“The idea was not to rip the scab off and bring back bad memories. What we did was give the personal stories that brought a reality to what we were seeing from Walter Cronkite on the nightly news,” said Nourse, who has lived on Vashon Island since 1985 with his wife Barbara. “We saw the statistics, but this brought the personal experiences to the reality of Vietnam by the people that served there.”
He talked with guys he went to high school with — farmer’s kids, businessmen’s kids, ordinary guys he saw in the halls everyday at a high school that were thrown into impossible situations.
Mike Dorsey graduated from Ellensburg in 1966 and served the army as an infantry combat soldier and later served as a machine door gunner on the Crusaders Slick.
Historical Facts
• 9,087,000 military personnel who served on active duty during the official Vietnam era from Aug. 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975.
• 2,709,918 Americans who served in uniform in Vietnam.
• 58,148 Americans killed.
“I got in-country in 1969. I think I was too naïve to be frightened. I didn’t really understand exactly what was happening. It was more like you’re part of the deal and off you go,” Dorsey said during his interview for the radio series. “I was first assigned to a firebase as an infantry man. I had a friend from another infantry unit was out for 30 days at a time, sleeping in the brush, ambushes the whole deal. But that wasn’t the case with me. We would go out and come back that night to serve as perimeter guard.
• 75,000 Americans were severely disabled; 23,214 were 100% disabled; 5,283 lost limbs and 1,081 sustained multiple amputations.
• Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21-years-old.
• 11,465 of those killed were younger than 20-years-old.
• The average age of the men killed: 23.1 years.
• As of April 14, 2017, there are 1,611 Americans still unaccounted for across Vietnam (1,258), Laos (297), Cambodia (49) and China (7).
“A lot of friends I served with have their names are on The Wall. So to bring the traveling wall (to Ellensburg) means a lot. The Wall is a reality that a lot of people died for a cause that shouldn’t have happened. My take is that is our leaders at the top weren’t listening to what the troops on the ground were saying. There was a lot of people killed for no reason at all.”
Aronica received two Purple Heart citations and was actually wounded a third time during his tour of duty.
“I blame it on our leadership, because it seemed like the only reason we were there was to make money for somebody,” said Aronica, who mustered out in 1969. “We didn’t come home to a parade. People finally started recognizing that there were Vietnam veterans that were never appreciated because of the riots and stuff like that.
“The people that served and gave their life did it because they thought they were fighting for something worth the risk. Part of us thought ‘You need to serve your country so you don’t have your enemy on your back doorstep.’ We saw that with 911. When it gets to that point, it’s too late. I don’t know if the Wall heals, but people need to know the men and women died for their freedoms.”
Rich Searle graduated from Sunnyside High School in 1966. He was a Spec. 5, 864th Engineer Battalion working out of a Base Camp in Nhatrang on the coast in Central Vietnam.
“We built roads. We built radar sites. When the NVA would blow out a bridge, we would build temporary crossings. It was pretty tough during the monsoons,” said Searle, who did two tours from Feb. 1967 to Sept. 1968. “The freeways over the bridge were pretty rough roads.
“We were out quite a bit and then go back to the basecamp. The thing is, you’re responsible for your truck 24/7, so we kept them in tip-top shape all the time. To me the sound of helicopters is the still the sound of music. I hear them coming into the hospital where I live here in Ellensburg and it’s still soothing. They were the life line for so many. I was fighting for my country and supporting my troops that were there and the South Vietnamese people. But there was too much politics that’s for sure.”
Dr. Steven Nourse is a 1966 Ellensburg High School graduate and did a 14part radio series in 2021 called the “The 52-Year War in Vietnam” for the Voice of Vashon, 101.9 FM radio station on Vashon Island. The Central Washington University alumni (1966-’71) and former CWU professor interviewed several friends and classmates from Ellensburg, including Mike Dorsey, Lloyd Webster,
Source: Vietnam Veteran Project
“It was not like you were looking at a big map and you could say, ‘Oh here we are. I see what we’re doin’. You would go here one day and there the next day and somewhere else the next day after that.’”
He later transferred to a helicopter unit where he was a door gunner on a slick.
“The crew on a ship like I was on was the pilot, co-pilot, crew chief and the gunner. The crew chief sits in the back on a machine gun and I was the other gunner,” Dorse explained. “When you drop people off you don’t know if there (is enemy in the area). You’re just a big, fat target so you provide cover fire. There really wasn’t a whole lot of eagle-eye consideration.”
Dennis Larsen was with an elite group of soldiers who trained with dogs and served as a point-man to search out and locate Viet Cong. He went on more than 50 missions.
Mike Allen enlisted in 1968. He served in the 1st Marine Division as an artilleryman and was stationed in the far north of South Vietnam.
Lloyd Webster and Jim McFarland did a one-hour episode together. Webster graduated in 1966 and joined the Marines. He served in Vietnam repairing highly complex components of jet planes which used auto-pilot. McFarland graduated in 1965. He supervised a squad of soldiers who repaired Chinook helicopters.
“There was an interesting story about Lave Gustafson and Jim McFarland. Both worked on helicopters in different units. It was at Christmas time and they somehow found out about each other,” Nourse explained. “They ended up getting together a world away from where they grew up. Lave ended up dying from cancer, but the type of cancer he had could be traced back to the effects of Agent Orange.”
David Watson was stationed in Germany during the Vietnam War and didn’t actually serve in-country. Now, the Ellensburg native currently lives in Ho Chi Mihn City (formerly Saigon). Nourse caught up with Watson for the 52-Year War series in a telephone interview.
“Dave was a friend of mine from Ellensburg. He’s been in Ho Chi Mihn City since 2011. He married there and has 4 children,” Nourse said. “Vietnam is still basically a communistic government. On the day we interviewed his kids were taking piano lessons much like kids would in America.
“He was working on the infra-structure setting up a telephone system. He also worked with farming and fishing infra-structure. He was able to articulate what Ho Chi Mihn City is like today, including education, politics, the infra-structure, and medical services provided by the government.”
Rod Harwood is an award-winning writer and photographer and can be reached at rodneyharwood149@gmail.com
LOCAL SUPPORT
RESOURCES
Employment & Education WorkSource
509-665-3702
Central Washinton University Vet Center
400 E. University Way, Ellensburg, WA 98926
Vet Center 509-963-3028
Main 509-963-1111 https://www.cwu.edu/
VA Suicide Hotline
Call 800-273-8255 to speak to another veteran if you are considering suicide. Speak with someone today. We are here to help you.
Veterans Crisis Line
Dial 988 press 1 Text 838255
To Chat online: www.veteranscrisisline.net/get-help-now/chat/
State and Federal Support US Department of Veterans Affairs
800-827-1000 www.va.gov/
Washington State Departement of Veterans Affairs
800-562-0132 www.dva.wa.gov/
Veterans Medical Center (Yakima)
1211 Antanum Ridge Drive Union Gap, WA 98903
Main number: 509-966-0199
Mental Health: 509-925-5200 ext. 26975
Veterans Outpatient Clinic (Wenatchee)
2530 Chester Kimm Road Wenatchee, WA 98801-8130
Main number: 833-500-1490
Mental Health Care: 509-633-7615 ext. 5027
What is a Veteran Service Officer (VSO)?
A Veterans Service Officer (VSO) is someone who works on behalf of veterans and their dependents and survivors.They are trained and either accredited or certified in the Veterans Administration (VA) claims and appeals process and can help you with Veterans Affairs (VA) related needs.
VSOs provide added support, such as helping with emergency funds, coordinating resources, and can help you understand and apply for local and Washington state Veteran benefits including:
• Financial support
• Education
• Veteran Readiness and Employment
• Home loans
• Life insurance
• Pension
• Health care
• Burial Benefits
• Records Requests
• Kittitas County Voucher Program
The purpose of the Veterans Relief fund is to provide emergency relief to veterans in need that are facing financial hardship. Applicants must meet requirements and provide documentation. Program funds are subject to availability.
The Kittitas County Veterans Services Program strongly encourages any veteran or a family of a veteran to contact our local Veteran Service Officer (VSO) when applying for any programs or resources. A VSO can help you fill out the paperwork properly and guide you through any necessary processes. VSOs are certified and trained in the claims and appeals processes and they are more than willing to help you or your family. Contact your local VSO if you have questions.
Ona & Henry
The story of a beautiful friendship
Quite often a funeral director’s mind works based on dates. If you were to ask me a question about something totally unrelated to work, I would likely take a minute to think and be able to zero in on the date based on the individuals I was caring for at that time. Having such a memory is a blessing and a curse because frequently there are dates that I wish I could forget. And this column is focused on dates. Tuesday, April 10, 2018 was the first time I met Ona Solberg. Little did I know at the time that she would become my absolute best friend. We first became acquainted when I directed and officiated the funeral for Mike Brunner.
you’ll be quite impressed.
But one part of her obituary should stand out and will explain why she died at the age of 64 on another date that I will always remember — March 1, 2022.
On Sept. 11, 2001, the Pentagon was attacked. Ona spent many days following the attack at the impact site, assisting with the recovery of items from the intelligence spaces — now considered a crime scene — and recovery of classified materials from the Director of Naval Intelligence’s front office suites. It was during this time she was exposed to various mold spores, asbestos and other carcinogens which likely resulted in her Stage IV cancer
Ona and Henry share a selfie and some smiles. Contributed photo
Continued from previous page
her to ask her to stop by and she didn’t tell me she was coming. But she was there.
This impeccable and perfect timing led to my being able to vent, to ugly cry, to get all of the weight of the last year off my shoulders. Ona just sat there and listened and, when I was done, she looked at me and said, “feel better?”with that twinkle in her eye and her big smile. She followed up with, “and if you think we’re going to let you leave town that easy, you’re wrong.”
Our friendship deepened after that visit — she accompanied me on my trip in June 2021 to pick up the new Johnston & Williams hearse in Cincinnati and drive it home. There are so many memories — too many to recount — from that trip that will always hold a special place in my heart.
As time went on Ona’s cancer slowly progressed. The last time I saw her while she was still somewhat coherent was Feb. 24, 2022, the day after her 64th birthday. Five days later I would be driving her back into town in the same hearse she helped me pick up less than a year earlier — except this time she was riding in the back.
When we returned to the funeral home and I got her situated in the preparation room, I stepped out to text a fellow embalmer who had offered to do the preparation work for me. I didn’t think I could do it myself — I mean, this was my best friend and there’s just some things that even the
strongest undertakers can’t handle.
As I was just about to click “send” on the text message letting my friend know the situation and asking when he could be here to care for her, I heard Ona’s voice in my ear, clear as day as if she was standing there right next to me, sharing her trademark phrase — “Suck it up buttercup.” How could I not? Ona had given me my marching orders, so I turned around, walked back into the room and did what I was trained to do.
The last trip Ona and I took together was on Nov. 9, 2023, the day we laid her urn to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. I had arranged for her urn to be transported in the same hearse as other Washington DC notables including President George H.W. Bush, John McCain and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It was a beautiful ceremony and one that I know she would have approved of.
So to you my friend I raise a glass and wish you fair winds and following seas. I will always love you and I will never forget you.
— Henry D. Johnston is owner of Johnston & Williams Funeral Homes in Ellensburg and Cle Elum. He is an avid funeral history buff who also enjoys golfing, boating and spending time with his family.
for more than 20 years. Above: Ona in her Naval uniform.
Left: Ona’s farewell as she prepared to make the trip to Arlington National Cemetery.
Left: Henry and Ona embrace. Above left: Ona stands next to a Navy flag. She served in the Navy
Contributed photos
MAY 1
EVENTS CALENDAR
Make Music Ellensburg, 201 N Pearl Ste 2, 10:30am Guitar for all ages, 201 N Pearl Ste 2, 6:30pm Evening Bingo, Centennial Center Cle Elum, 4:30pm Valley Theatre Company presents Disney’s Frozen JR, Morgan Performing Arts Center, 7pm
MAY
2
Erika Lundahl, The Mule, 7-9pm Billy Shein, Nodding Donkey, 7pm Thorp’s Treasure Trove, Thorp School, 1pm Acoustic Show, Old Skool’s, 7pm Ode to Our Founder, Silent Auction & Variety Show Fundraiser, Odd Fellows of Ellensburg, 6-8pm Valley Theatre Company presents Disney’s Frozen JR, Morgan Performing Arts Center, 7pm
Daniel Davison, Cornerstone Italian Kitchen, 6-8pm Jazz Cafe Annual Dinner and Auction, Cle Elum Eagles, 5-8pm
Mountain Wellness Adventure, Roslyn Red House, 11am4pm
5K Bulldog Neon Glow Run, Rotary Park, 5pm First Friday Art Walk
MAY 3
UKC Bicycle Rodeo, Cle Elum Fire Station 10am - 1pm Artist Studio Tour Renee Adams & Justin Givens, 51 Goodwin Road Thorp, 11am
Local Makers Market, 801 E 1st Cle Elum, 10am-2pm Bingo de Mayo, W. Atlantic Avenue Ronald, 6-8pm Remote Control Boat Races, Irene Rinehart Park, 8am - 6pm Melany Richardson-Peterson, Hayday Bakery, 5-7pm Crafters in the Canyon,Canyon River Ranch, 9am -Noon Free Shred Truck, Windermere Real Estate Ellensburg, 9amNoon
Thorp’s Treasure Trove, Thorp School, 2pm Cinco de Mayo Latin Music, Fidelinas, 6pm Lets Meat Event, 3 Boots Ranch, 310 Rosebriar Lane, 11am4pm Ellensburg Farmers Market, East 4th Ave, 9am Valley Theatre Company presents Disney’s Frozen JR, Morgan Performing Arts Center, 2pm & 7pm Daniel Davison, Cornerstone Italian Kitchen, 6pm - 8pm Piano Extravaganza, McIntyre Concert Hall, 3pm Rodeo de la Raza, SURC Ballroom, 6pm Diamond Star Halo, The Brick, 9pm Mountain Wellness Fair, Centennial Center Cle Elum, 10am5pm
Daily Bread Summer Pop Up, Daily Bread, 9am-3pm Little Mania Wrestling All Stars, Kittitas County Event Center, 8pm
MAY 4
Wild Foods and Medicines Plant Walk, Adiantum School of Plant Medicine, Coal Mines Trail Cle Elum, 10am-Noon MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU Costume Party, Iron Horse Brewery, 4pm
Seeds of Fate Book Signing, Pearl Street Books, 2pm
2025 Dirty Soda & Games (ages 16-18), 3-5 pm, Fitterers Building
Friends of the Brooks Library Spring Sale, Brooks Library Student Commons, 9 am
Bike Night, The Porch, 6pm
Music Jam, Roslyn Creative Center, 6:30pm
DJ Kozmo, Logan’s Roslyn, 8pm
MAY 8
Ladies Night, Downtown Cle Elum, 5-8pm
Dru Bru Pint Night, Dru Bru Cle Elum, 5:30pm
Line Dance Lessons all ages, The Brick, 6:30pm
MAY 9
Daniel Davison, Cornerstone Italian Kitchen 6-8pm
Spiced Rye, Whipsaw Brewing, 6-8pm
Corben Welter, Nodding Donkey, 7pm
Sip and Spin Workshop, Gallery One, 6pm
Second Friday Zumba, Ellensburg Dance Ensemble, 6:30pm Sunflower Festival, Silent Auction & Dinner, 2100 N Cora Street, 5:30pm
CWU Family Weekend, SURC 272, 10am
Live and Loud!, Old Skool’s, 7 pm
Jukebox Central, Gard Vintners, 6pm
Basic Training with PatRick Environmental, 1043 W University Way, 6pm
Karaoke DJ Forrest Gump, The Brick, 9pm
Once Upon a Mattress, McConnell Auditorium CWU, 7:30pm
MAY 10
Mother’s Day Tea, Brick House Gardens, 10am - Noon Karaoke, Nodding Donkey, 7pm
Girls with Grit Fun Run 5k, Nelson Farm, 9:30am Springfest, Nelson Farm, 9:30am-1pm
Cactus Field Trip with Ron Bockelman, Wild Horse Renewable Energy Center, 9:30am-3pm
Horse Daze Tack Sale, Ellensburg Foursquare Church, 9am2pm
Get Intimate with the Shrub-Steppe, Yakima Canyon Interpretive Center, 9am Xetera, Cornerstone Italian Kitchen, 6-8pm Spring Bazaar and Bake Sale, Cle Elum Eagles, 10am-3pm
Mr G Band, Cle Elum Eagles, 7-10pm
Mothers Day Free Lunch, Dusty’s Nursery, 10am
Mark Nitchman Memorial Poker Run and Cornhole Tournament, Time Out Saloon, 9am
KEEN Hands-On Science Discovery Booths, Yakima Canyon Interpretive Center, 9am
Warped 2KS, The Brick, 9pm
Portrait Drawing Workshop, Gallery One, 10am
Once Upon a Mattress, McConnell Auditorium CWU, 7:30pm
MAY 11
Mothers Day Wildflower and Wind Power Walk, Wild Horse Wind Farm, 10am CWU Family Weekend, SURC 272, 5pm Open Mic featuring Joseph Hunter Duncan, Old Skool’s, 7pm
Mutha’s Day, Whipsaw Brewing, 1-4pm
Plant your own Hanging Basket, The Brick House Gardens, 9am-4pm
Get Intimate with the Shrub-Steppe, Yakima Canyon Interpretive Center, Noon
MAY 12
Bingo Night, Hotel Windrow, 6:30pm Valley Theatre Company: Readers Theatre, Gard Vintners, 6:30pm
MAY 13
Naneum Work Party Trailhead 1, Kittitas Chapter: Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, 5:30pm Poirot Tuesdays, 420 Loft, 7pm Suncadia, Just for Locals, Glade Springs Spa, 9am
MAY 14
Spring Plant Swap, The Porch, 6-8pm Karoke DJ Kozmo, Logan’s Roslyn, 8pm
Intro to Screenprinting Workshop, The Ink, 2pm
MAY 15
Music in the Gardens, The Brick House Gardens and Nursery, 5-7pm
Charlie Partin, Mike’s Tavern Cle Elum, 7pm
A Night at the Museum, Roslyn History, Nick Henderson, Carpenter House, 5:30-6:30pm
Possibilities Tour - Downtown Ellensburg, 5:30-7:30pm
Poetry Open Mic, Roslyn Library, 7pm
Once Upon a Mattress, McConnell Auditorium CWU, 7:30pm
EVENTS CALENDAR
MAY 16
Clinton Dodger, Nodding Donkey, 7pm Gear Swap & Fundraiser Trout Unlimited, Cle Elum Tap Room, 4:30-7:30pm
Free Adult CPR/AED & Stop the Bleed Class, 400 E Mt. View Ave, Ellensburg, 6-8pm
Intro to Screenprinting Workshop, The Ink, 5:30pm Student Appreciation Day Concert, Samuelson Patio, CWU, 5pm
Free Line Dance Lessons all ages, The Brick, 6:30pm Herbal First Aid, Adiantum School of Plant Medicine 717 East 1st Cle Elum, 6-8pm
Lets Enjoy the Outdoors, Judi Lewis Hull and Ellensburg Ladies Society Red Horse Diner, Noon
MAY 23
Best of the West Horse Camp, WA State Horse Park Cle Elum, 8am
Daniel Davison, Cornerstone Italian Kitchen, 6-8pm
Kyle James, Whipsaw Brewing, 6-9pm
Just Dance, The Studio by EDE, 6:30pm
Acoustic Night with Nick Mardon, The Brick, 9pm
MAY 24
Karaoke, Nodding Donkey, 7pm
Continued on Page 23 VENUES
For more information go to www.ci.ellensburg.wa.us/409/First-Friday-Art-Walk
Music man
Richie Blue has played with some major music legends over the years
Editor’s Note: This is Part 2 of a two-part series on 1975 Ellensburg High School’s Richie Blue’s musical journey. Part 1 is available in the April edition of 1883 Kittitas County Magazine.
Richie Blue has been on a musical journey since 1968, shaping and developing the signature guitar riffs that carried him all the way to The Blues Hall of Fame.
Vagabond Press founder John Bennett once wrote, “By the time I showed up on the scene from San Francisco in 1974, Ellensburg was probably the hottest dance spot on the Washington map,” the local music writer penned. “I must have danced my way through five pairs of shoes before The Ranch burned down. The music died and the local boys went on to bigger things in bigger places. But it was a special time.”
Blue was one of those boys that went on to bigger stages and brighter lights, along with Al Kaatz from the Greasewood City Ramblers. Kaatz later played with Bonnie Bramlett, Doug Kershaw, Bo Diddley, Etta James, Charlie Musselwhite and a number of others on the Seattle scene.
Blue moved to San Francisco in 1980. He did a stint with The Fabulous Beaumont Brothers featuring blues extraordinaire Amos Garett. It didn’t take long and he was gigging on the San Jose, San Francisco and Sacramento club and festival circuit. Blue also worked with Musselwhite along with longtime Steve Miller harmonica player Norton Buffalo, Elvin Bishop and Doyle Bramhall II. He’s shared the stage with Roy Clark, Johnny Copeland, Buddy Miles and blues saxophonist Terry Hanck.
“In the grand scheme of things, I’m pretty small potatoes,” the 1975 Ellensburg High School graduate said. “I’ve been able to scratch out a living making music for over 50 years, doing what I love to do.”
Blue will make his return to Ellensburg in June to play at the second GustFest at the Kittitas County Fairgrounds in support of the music that put Ellensburg on the radar and the upcoming musicians that will take it from here.
1883 Kittitas County Magazine caught up with Blue in a telephone interview from Fresno, Calif. to talk about playing with the legends and chasing the dream.
1883 Kittitas County Magazine: Been quite a run, let’s start with Al Kaatz. Al graduated a few years before you in 1969, but you two crossed paths constantly in the early days.
Richie Blue: “Al was the cat all of us looked up to. He had the first Strat in town. I’d never seen a Strat up close until I saw him playing one. I’d seen Hendrix and others playing, but when I saw Al playing up close I said, ‘Holy cow, I want one of those.’
Al moved to Seattle and I went to San Francisco. He was always on my team and so helpful when I was younger, man. As we got older, he was a great mentor. He’s always been like that, still is.”
1883 Kittitas County Magazine: Norton Buffalo was a longtime Steve Miller Band harmonica player and did the harp work on Bonnie Raitt’s version of Runaway. What was that experience like?
Richie Blue: “I started playing with Norton in 1987 up until 1996. He’d call and we’d go out. The thing about playing with Norton, he was always on tour with Steve Miller from May through October. So, when I played with Norton it was always winter gigs. I was part of the winter band that played until March. We didn’t see each other for quite a while in the summer and then we’d get back together and play like we never took a break.”
GUSTFEST
June 22
Umptanum room at the Kittitas County Fairgrounds Doors open at 12:30 p.m.; music starts at 1 p.m. Musical Lineup: Pat Moss Band featuring Richie Blue Star Anna
Micah J Killdeer String Band Nate and Alyssa Kyle James and the Hay Dogs Wolfpack Serenade Seth Garrido
1883 Kittitas County Magazine: Elvin Bishop was a big part of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band with Mike Bloomfield. He was also a major player in the scene coming out of California. What was that experience like?
Richie Blue: “He would assemble a band of locals whenever he came to town. I played behind him a whole bunch of times. He and Norton were good friends, so we’d tour together — the Norton Buffalo-Elvin Bishop show. We did that quite a bit. It was really fun and great playing with these really superb musicians. To me, music is music, so it wasn’t so much a whole new level. We’d have rehearsals and then we’d go play, but you always wanted to be on top of your game.”
1883 Kittitas County Magazine: Steve Miller and Norton were a big part of the production of your song Run Through The Night Norton also did a version of Rooster. What was your relationship with Stever Miller?
Continued from previous page
Richie Blue: “I played with Steve once in Sun Valley (Idaho). It was me, him and Norton. We jammed together for a set. It was great fun. Both Norton and Steve did production on Run Through the Night. Norton and I wrote the song and he and Steve did the production. It was a song that Norton liked, Steve too, and they helped with the arranging. Nothing major, just little adjustments. I really wanted Norton to play on it, but it didn’t work out. But they helped me shop it around a little bit. I got a whole bunch of really nice rejection letters. But it was OK because the song got out.”
1883 Kittitas County Magazine: You did some work with another extraordinary harmonica player, Charlie Musselwhite. Tell us about that.
Richie Blue: “Charlie Musselwhite was a very nice cat. He was really big in Mississippi and Chicago. He was so good and I just love that guy. There’s a difference between Charlie, Norton and Paul Butterfield than all the rest. Bob Dylan and Neil Young use their harmonicas for accompaniment. The other three are complete soloists with their own instrument. Norton leaned a little more toward country, although he could create like nobody’s business. Musselwhite and Butterfield were pure blues all the way.”
1883 Kittitas County Magazine: Doyle Bramhall II is best known for his work with Eric Clapton and Roger Waters. He also toured with Jimmie Vaughan’s band The Fabulous Thunderbirds. What was playing
with him like?
Richie Blue: “He and I played together in Sonoma County. He was from Texas. But he was raised in Northern California, so he had a lot of influences. He was a real rocky, soul, blues player. He had that Texas Blues up-in-your-face style I really liked. We did a little bit of traveling. He was just a young guy when I played with him - young, rowdy playing the Texas Blues like nobody’s business.”
1883 Kittitas County Magazine: Last question, you opened for Albert King. Was that a little nerve racking?
Richie Blue: “I opened up for Albert King a couple of times. We came out and played first. One time on our break Albert asked if I wanted to back the band because he needed a guitar player. I’m like ‘Whoa, with Albert King?’ When we got back to the green room he was pretty laid back, smoking that pipe he’s known for. Here he is the master and he was talking with us like regular guys. I guess he figured out we weren’t little (bleeps). He was pretty cool.”
Blue is expected to join forces with NashBand and Greasewood running mate Mike Thorpe and Pat Moss for the GustFest show on June 22. They are scheduled to play a pre-gig show at the Ellensburg American Legion Hall on June 21.
Rod Harwood is an award-winning writer and photographer. He can be reached at rodneyharwood149@gmail.com
Above: NashBand was one of several local bands playing throughout the Kittitas Valley and Western Washington during the ’70s, early ’80s. Contributed photo
Top Right: Ellensburg native Richie Blue and Lenny Price joined forces to bring them to their feet during a local performance. Laura Stanley photo
Right: Richie Blue gives a souful performance at a past Ellensburg get-together at the American Legion Hall. Contribute photo
Making magic
Blue Bear Puppet Lab’s imagery brings creative design to
life
Brian Kooser’s journey through the creative district is a bit like the wandering parade of giant puppets through the streets during the Buskers in the Burg, flowing along to the beat of a different drum.
As the former lead singer with the punk band The Dead Leninz (later Millions of Dead Leninz), he opened for Nirvana at Hal Holmes Community Center back in 1988. His journey has taken him from fronting a punk band to earning a Master of Fine Arts degree to full-time lecturer of Art at Central Washington University to business owner and primary designer of giant puppets.
It’s been a long, strange trip to say the least.
“I was playing with The Dead Leninz when I was going to
(CWU) the first time around. We actually opened for Nirvana here in Ellensburg,” Kooser said. “At that time nobody knew who the hell they were, but we all knew they had something special.
“At the time, we were rehearsing at Conner Family video store. The Screaming Trees were getting ready to release Other Worlds.
Mark Pickerel and Van Conner were part of our first band (The Dead Leninz). They were already in the Screaming Trees. But Van wanted to play guitar and wanted to play punk rock, so they played with us a bit.”
It’s been 37 years since sharing the bill with an up-and-coming band called Nirvana to sharing the artists collective space on Main Street called The Ink,, along with Ellensburg Community Radio and Manastash Media. The now 61-year-old has been
Brian Kooser works on one of his puppets. Dennis Valente photo
Continued from previous page
designing and creating puppetry for well over 30 years, taking his creative experience in wild and creative directions.
Kooser started the Blue Bear Puppet Lab in 2012, creating giant puppets for various events around Ellensburg. He’s also a full-time lecturer of Art at Central Washington University, where he got his Master of Fine Arts degree. His class schedule includes Art Appreciation, Instruction to 2-dimensional design and 3-dimensional design. One is his passion and the other pays the bills, he says.
“I started designing the puppets when I first moved to Ellensburg. I was going back to school. I had financial aid for the school year, but nothing over the summer, so I was scrambling to pay my rent,” he explained. “My first year doing Buskers in the Burg was 2011.
“I did a couple of designs that first year and I received a grant the next year to create work that was supposed to bring the university and town together. That’s when I came up with the idea for the parade for the Buskers in the Burg. We’ve improved every year. We started doing some other projects and branching out.”
At first glance, the thought of puppetry might envision of Pinocchio with strings and a puppet master. But Blue Bear Puppet Lab puppets larger than life, worn like costume and maneuvered with a human avatar.
“We’ve become multi-generational. We have people that were the kids scared by these giants that are now the ones scaring kids with the massive puppets,” he said with a laugh. “I have a crew of 11 volunteer performers. Some have been with me for years; others are students that come and go.”
The puppetry design is a process is a creation rather than a costume, using design elements for life-like movement, a character for the ages.
“When I start, I do a drawing of that person to figure out what is going to be compelling about the design,” he said, describing the sketch to finished product process. “I take measurements from that scale drawing, so I can make each separate component.
“I usually build the head first, then the arms and legs come later. I put it
on a backpack frame if it’s a giant puppet or build the construction inside the head so it can be more life-like. I construct the body around the person.”
It is a delicate process with some puppets that are sometimes 10-to 12-feet tall. It needs to be light weight enough for movement and sturdy enough to be set in motion.
“With the giant puppets, which are oversized, larger than human, are usually built with a backpack. We have to make sure they are feasible and easy to use for the volunteers to carry around,” Kooser said. “We also have the body puppets, which are costumes with a head that fits over their own head. They wear a suit of some sort that fills it out with the illusion that it’s a living, breathing object.
“Some of those are inflatable costumes. Some are constructed from cardboard that appear to come to life with movement.”
Blue Bear Puppet Lab is not a theatrical operation, but each character comes to life through a series of motions in a dramatic sense, an illusion of sorts in a realistic way.
“It’s easier to teach an actor how to be a puppeteer than it is to teach a puppeteer how to act,” he said. “Actors are not used to inhabiting something that’s larger than them. Bringing it to life is different than the motion of their own body life.
“They have to push their awareness out so the extension is more than simply acting. We also have puppets that are just costumes and easier to maneuver.”
The creation is astonishing in that bird puppets actually appear to be looking at people with a bird-like tilt of the head or a duck that actually waddles in life-like fashion.
Blue Bear Puppet Lab is a fixture at Buskers in the Burg as well as the Farmer’s Market and various other school and celebrations throughout Central and Western Washington, bringing to life a world of creativity not always scene on stage or the circus.
Rod Harwood is an award-winning writer and photographer. He can be reached at rodneyharwood149@gmail.com.
Left:A couple of Bavarian-themed Blue Bear Puppet Lab’s puppets are making their way through a street in downtown Ellensburg. Rodney Harwood photo
Above: bits and pieces of a Blue Bear Puppet Lab project can be seen. Contributed photo
Beam me up
UFOs over Ellensburg? They’re probably not here to buy Timothy hay
Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) are nothing new in Central Washington. In fact the term, flying saucer, which is often applied to such objects, was first coined when, on June 24, 1947, civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold claimed he saw a strand of nine, glowing unidentified flying objects traveling past Mount Rainier at speeds he estimated exceeded 1,200 miles per hour.
Arnold, who lived in Idaho, was flying in a CallAir Model A-2 utility aircraft from Chehalis to an air show in Pendleton, Ore., with a planned refueling stop in Yakima. He decided to make a slight detour to Mount Rainier after learning about a sizeable reward for anyone spotting a U.S. Marine Corps C-46 transport plane that had recently crashed near the mountain. He later recalled that the skies were clear and there was only a mild wind that day.
At about 3 p.m., Arnold said he was near Mineral, Wash. when he noticed a flash of light. About a half-minute later, he saw additional flashes about 2530 miles from him, just north of Mount Rainier. After scrutinizing them for a few minutes, he saw the reflections were coming from a pack of nine flying objects, flying in a line, that he could not readily identify.
The things moved in a way that Arnold later described as “like a saucer if you skipped it across water.” In fact, he said they were round and thin shaped, much like a disc, pie pan — or a saucer, except for the lead one, which was crescent-shaped. Thinking he was seeing some kind of new U.S. military aircraft he continued to watch the objects and said they moved from side-to-side, like the “tail of a Chinese kite.”
Arnold wasn’t the only person to see the flying dishes that day. At about the same time a woman in Yakima said she also had seen several shiny discs flying at incredible speeds near Mount Rainier. The story was also corroborated by a Richland man who told his local newspaper that “I believe it may be a visitor from another planet.”
And with that the state of Washington became a UFO hotspot. Since then residents have reported more than 7,000 UFO sightings in the Evergreen State skies, according to the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), a non-profit organizing devoted to receiving, reporting, and, to the extent it can, corroborating and documenting UFO eyewitness accounts. Not surprisingly, Kittitas County has been the location of a Continued from previous page
number of alleged UFO sightings over the years.
Among the earliest accounts to appear in the media was a report on Aug. 6, 1965 in the Daily Record about a local businessman, his wife, his two children and several other family members noticing a “white-glowing oval object” in the night sky. He told the paper that the object was just above the tree tops west of Ellensburg and appeared to hover, then maneuver up and down. It also rotated and emitted flickering glowing green and red lights. Intrigued by the object, the family drove to the top of Craig Hill where they watched it until it disappeared over Mount Stuart.
About a half of a year later on Aug. 6, 1966, there was another sighting over Ellensburg, this time by two Washington State Patrol troopers. According to Spokane’s Spokesman Review, the men, Joe Williams and James Wade, reported seeing a UFO at 11:15 p.m. on the previous Sunday.
“Williams said the object was a round, bright light, brighter than the stars with no discernible features,” the newspaper said. “He said it made no sound and that it moved first slowly and then rapidly from north to southeast as the men watched it from their back yards about a mile southwest of here (Ellensburg).”
The two men said about 15 minutes later a second, similar object appeared in the sky. After the objects disappeared they reported the incident which was later shared with officials at the McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma.
According to NUFORC, Ellensburg was the location of what was described as a “very large UFO sighting” on Aug. 15, 1972. The unnamed observer, who waited until 2007 to file a report, said he was returning home from Yakima on Interstate 82 just south of Ellensburg, when he noticed a large number of lights in the sky that appeared to be moving below low cloud cover.
“My memory is of alternate red, yellow, green and white lights in a circle with no specific pattern of appearance or distance between,” the report said. Thinking the lights might be helicopters from the U.S. Army facility located between Ellensburg and Yakima, the person pulled to the side of the road, turned off his car engine and listened.
“There was a light wind blowing from the direction of the lights and I strained to hear any sounds. There was none except for the wind,” he said. “The UFO moved slowly on a level plane north of the ridge. Now as the lights got closer I could see it was large and I got more frightened as it got closer. Now I knew I was seeing my first UFO.”
Afraid of the object the man said he stood still as the UFO hovered directly above him. He said got a good look at the thing, which he said was elliptical in shape with lights around its perimeter that did not blink. Finally, it moved away from him and he was able to jump back in his car in order to get home to Yakima.
Still not sure if the object had been a military aircraft, the man said when he got home he called the Army base and asked the duty officer if they were conducting some type of military operations that night. He was told they weren’t but that someone would be in touch with him. The man said he purposely didn’t mention the UFO because “they might figure I was a nut.”
“The following day I called and asked for the same officer (who I spoke to the night before) and was told there was no such person ever on that base. There was no record of my report and no investigation was noted,” he wrote.
with a flat bottom. After a couple minutes, one of the forms dimmed and disappeared then so did the other two . . . I gotta tell you that they scared the hell outta me!”
Perhaps the most bizarre UFO report came on Dec.12, 2013, when several local residents told the Daily Record they had encountered, “a strange black blob floating in the sky above Ellensburg.” In the story, a local woman said she saw this black shape hanging about 1,000 feet from the ground just south of Bender Road between Alder and Walnut streets. She added that appeared to be moving toward Bowers Field. “She said it expanded and contracted like some kind of jagged, geometric puffer fish,” the Daily Record noted. The woman also said her husband had been able to take a few photos of the black flying blob, which he shared with the newspaper. The image shows a jagged black object that resembled a dark, crystallinelike rock floating in the sky. The newspaper concluded that “balloons, trash bags somehow filled with helium or trash bags full of balloons were likely culprits.”
One of the most compelling recent accounts filed with NUFORC came on July 31, 2005. A woman living on Wilson Creek Road reported, “It was just beginning to get dark and our driveway alarm buzzed so I thought the deer had come to graze, so I looked south down the driveway and saw nothing. From the kitchen I noticed three very bright lights well above Manastash Ridge and to the east of the pass.”
The woman said she grabbed a pair of binoculars to get a better look and saw that the three floating lights were in a kind of triangular pattern.“With the binoculars it was plain to see that each light was in fact several lights which formed a domed shape
Flying trash bags, however, weren’t the last word on UFOs over Ellensburg. On May 6, 2014, a trio of observers told NUFORC that they had seen unusual lights in the sky in the hills south of Ellensburg. At between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. the three who were traveling in car reported seeing a “massive orange, reddish almost circular light” above the ridges. “The light was immensely bright and looked to be hovering very low. A helicopter or plane was a suggestion but the lack of noise, light color and also lack of movement were all wrong,” the observer said.
The object appeared to change shape to a sliver and then vanished. It reappeared a few minutes later and looked like was slowly descending and then was again gone. The observer said he continued driving and searching ahead for any sign of the light. He looked in his rearview mirror and saw it again. Then the car rounded a curve and the light was gone.
One of the most recent episodes occurred on Oct. 5, 2020, when an observer reported to NUFORC that he had seen a “large oval metallic and shiny looking object in the sky between Ellensburg and Yakima near the military training center in the morning.” The observer said he was heading to work in Yakima at about 8 a.m. and was coming down Manastash Ridge near the military facility when “I looked up and sighted a large oval shaped metallic object in the distance in the air. Suspended and not moving at all.”
He said he looked for exhaust or chemtrails indicating some kind of propulsion system, but there were none. He said it hung there for about 20 seconds and then vanished into thin air. “The weather was blue skies with no clouds at all,” he wrote. “I know I saw something but can’t explain. I went to work and told co-workers and one said he had seen something also early in the morning which tells me others have seen it and I’m not going crazy.”
So is Kittitas County a UFO hotspot? According to NUFORC, the Ellensburg-Yakima corridor is ranked number seven for areas with the most UFOs sightings. Another ranking that appeared on a Yakima radio station website claimed the Ellensburg to Yakima route was number one in the state.
In 2021, the federal government released its first official report on UFOs, titled, “Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena,” which listed 144 sightings of such incidents by U.S. military personnel. Since then the Department of Defense has released several annual updates and reports on alleged UFOs. Last year, the government said it had recorded 757 new incident reports included nearly a halfdozen for which they have no explanation.
Cue the “X-Files” music.
— Richard Moreno is the author of 14 books, including Frontier Fake News: Nevada’s Sagebrush Hoaxsters and Humorists and the forthcoming Washington Historic Places on the National Register. He is the former director of executive communications at Central Washington University and was honored with the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame Silver Pen Award in 2007.
THE REFERENCE DESK
FICTION
“Playground,” by Richard Powers
Richard Powers’ newest work, has been earning considerable praise from critics. The book tells the story of four young people with very different backgrounds and interests wo meet on an island in French Polynesia and become part of an effort to establish floating cities on the open sea. It’s an ambitious book that explores the last wild place on earth—the ocean—while interweaving themes about technology, the environment and the future of humanity.
NON-FICTION
“This Ordinary Stardust: A Scientist’s Path from Grief to Wonder,” by Alan Townsend
About 10 years ago, Dr. Alan
Townsend and his family received two unthinkable diagnoses—both his 4-yearold daughter and his wife developed unrelated, life-threatening forms of brain cancer. As he observed his daughter’s fight during the final months of her mother’s life, Townsend, a devoted scientist, found he was changed. The experience made him begin to see scientific inquiry as more than a source of answers but also as a lens through which he could find peace with the terrible realities he could not change. The book offers a balanced, moving perspective on the common ground between science and religion through the spiritual fulfillment he found in his work.
YOUNG ADULT FICTION
“Wagnificent: The Adventures of Thunder and Sage,” by Bethanie
Murguia (Ages 6-10)
Bethanie Murguia’s young adult graphic novel spotlights the special bond between Thunder the dog, who enjoys naps by a sunny window and cuddling with her favorite human, Sage. Though the dog wants to be good for Sage, she sometimes finds it difficult not to do the things she knows are wrong, like loud barking, digging, and chasing cats. One day, her inner wolf appears and she learns a secret—she’s descended from wolves. Now she must decide whether to remain a loyal pet to Sage or pursue her inner “wolf self.”
CHILDREN
“Brave Like Fireweed,” by Jesse White (Ages 4-8)
In her debut book Jesse White utilizes poetic language and compelling
visuals to explore the interconnectedness between nature and humans. White takes readers on a journey that begins in a young girl’s bedroom on the night before a big performance. Nervous and excited, the girl dreams of North American flora and through her discovery of the resilient and powerful nature of plans, begins to gain confidence. White showcases the complexities of nature alongside her stylistic and emotive art, encouraging readers to explore their feelings and emotions—no matter how big or small.
Did You Know
• The Ellensburg Public Library is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and closed on Sundays?
— The Reference Desk: What’s New at the Ellensburg Library is written by Richard Moreno and highlights the newest books at the library.
Hidden
Woman masquerades as man to work in the Roslyn coal mines
The last Roslyn mine closed in 1963, but during the 77-year history the Kittitas County coal fields produced more than 50 million tons, more than a third of Washington State’s production to that date, according to HistoryLink.org
Upper County mining history is as rich as the coal deposits that fueled the locomotives while crews worked to complete the line across the Cascades through Stampede Pass. Around 1910 more than a half of the inhabitants were Croatian immigrants, joining Italians and African-Americans in the mining industry.
There were stories of fires, explosions, strikes and dangerous work in the mines that were sometimes being worked seven levels below the surface. But there is one story about a free spirit and a good heart trying to help a struggling family make ends meet that needs to be told and retold.
It’s all there if you know where to dig.
Nineteen-year-old Tony Bailey worked in the Northwestern Improvement Company No. 9 Mine as a loader, working long hours in dangerous conditions in a mine several hundred feet below the surface. It was brutal, dirty work, but steady pay in a company town where other work paid little.
In the low lighting conditions, wearing loose fitting clothes with coal dust covering their faces, one miner pretty much looked the same as the other. Except the tall, somewhat stringy Bailey was not like the other miners.
Come to find out Tony Bailey was really Gloria Bailey, who worked for 11 months underground so she could make a better living wage to support her family.
She was quoted (on uw.edu/2010/01/roslyn-spcoalminerstory) as saying, “My name is Gloria, but people knew me as Tony Bailey. Women weren’t allowed in the mines so I dressed myself as a man to get work.
“I would take out women to local bars to keep up my male appearance. I was discovered exiting the women’s restroom one night, and arrested on the spot.”
The ruse went on for nearly a year, working the mine in long shifts with the others in the mining town. Since it was prohibited by state law for women or girls to be around the actual workings of the mine, Gloria had to don the clothes and mannerisms of a man to fool the foreman and guys she worked with.
She went to work for the NIC’s No. 9 mine July 12, l948, disguised as a boy. No one except Gloria and her mother, Zora Bailey, knew of the deception. She even went so far as to take women out to dining and dancing establishments so sell the ruse. She eventually gave herself away mistakenly using the women’s restroom one night out on the town.
She was effective in her deception, fooling everyone who knew her in Cle Elum and the men she worked with in the mine in the Roslyn-Cle Elum coalfield north of present day Ronald. Gloria even fooled Cle Elum Miner-Echo (1922-1962), editor P. D. Peterson.
“Gloria has been mowing our lawn,” said Peterson in an EchoMiner article. “It never occurred to me that Tony was not a boy.
We didn’t find out until 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon. When I told my wife she didn’t believe me and said I was crazy.”
Gloria’s plan was to work in the mine to take care of her sick mother and save enough to buy her own café. It worked for 11 months. She was able to cover rent, pay other expenses and improve the quality of life in the mining town, as well as start saving to open her own business down the road. The telling mistake was more reflex than deceptive.
“Gloria was always head strong,” Zora Bailey said in the MinerEcho article.
“All her life she has run around in boy’s clothes. In fact, I don’t think the girl has a dress left to her name that she could wear now.
“When she was looking for a job where she could make good money — and we needed it — I guess she thought acting as a boy was the most natural thing in the world.”
Vladimir Medved, from left, Tony/Gloria Bailey and John Starkovich are photographed in the Northwestern Improvement Company No. 9 Mine. Contributed photo
Mine foreman Bill Wiseman said Gloria is “a darn good worker.” She loaded her quota of coal in the mine depths each day and worked as hard as the rest of the crew.
But it all came out during Police Chief Vic Cusworth and patrolman Tony Chapetta’s interview. Gloria didn’t come forward immediately, but they did have her on record coming out of the women’s restroom dressed as a man. When she finally did own up, it put an end to the first known case of a woman impersonation a man to work in the Roslyn-Cle Elum mines under an assumed name.
Gloria was born in Whitefish, Mont., July 19 1930 and graduated from eighth grade, according to the Miner-Echo story. Despite having a cooking background and job history in the cafes, Gloria went to the Wenatchee District to pick cherries.
Mining officials did think enough of her work to did give her vacation pay before moving on.
Rod Harwood is an award-winning writer and photographer. He can be reached at rodneyharwood149@gmail.com
EVENTS CALENDAR
Jukebox Central, Gard Vintners, 6pm
Santa Poco, The Brick, 9pm
MAY 25
Karaoke DJ Forrest Gump, The Brick, 9pm
2025 Speed Dating Sunday ages 55+ from 5-6:30pm, Fitterers Building
2025 Speed Dating Sunday ages 40-50 from 7-8:30pm, Fitterers Building
MAY 26
Preschool Music Explorers ages 2 - 5, 201 N Pearl Ste 2, 2:30pm
Make Music Ellensburg Ukulele Club ages 15-115, 201 N Pearl Street, 12:10pm
Bingo Night, Hotel Windrow, 6:30pm
MAY 27
Suncadia Just for Locals, Glade Springs Spa, 9am
Kozmo Blue, The Coal Chute Cafe, 6-8pm
MAY 28
Karaoke, DJ Kozmo Blue, Logan’s, 8pm
Cowboy Paint & Sip, Indigo Yoga, 6-8pm
Paint & Sip, Nuwave Gallery, 6pm
MAY 29
EPD Gang Awareness Community Presentation, Hal Holmes, 6-8pm
MAY 30
Daniel Davison, Cornerstone Italian Kitchen, 6-8pm
